Three children and three adults were hospitalized in serious or critical condition with burns and other fire-related injuries
By Allison Steele
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Two children died and at least six other people were injured in what Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers described as a "catastrophic" blaze that erupted in an Olney house at midday Tuesday.
The children, who fire officials said were 7 and 9, had not been identified as of Tuesday evening. Neighbors and officials said they believed the victims were two of several children who lived in the building with at least three adults.
Three children and three adults were hospitalized Tuesday with burns and other fire-related injuries, Ayers said. All were reported to be in either serious or critical condition. There also were conflicting reports from other fire officials that four children and four adults were injured.
The fire victims were Cambodian, said Rorng Sorn, executive director of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, who went to the scene Tuesday to help with translation.
The fire was reported at the home at 134 Sparks St. just before noon. Firefighters arrived in minutes, Ayers said, but found the first floor engulfed. Two adults were outside the building, one of whom had jumped from a second-floor window, Ayers said.
Some residents went to hospitals before the Fire Department arrived, officials said.
The cause of the fire was under investigation. Investigators found one antiquated smoke alarm in the basement and said the building's electrical outlets were overloaded, which Ayers said may have been factors.
"We're trying to find out what happened," Ayers said Tuesday evening. "How can a fire get to moving so fast in the middle of the day, with so many people and adults inside? It just doesn't make sense."
Ayers said it appeared that the house may have been used as a boarding home. Investigators saw beds in "every room, almost," he said.
Tabetha Misher, 31, a neighbor who tutored one of the surviving children, said that she had been in the house once and that it was cluttered with toys and blankets. She said that the adults smoked heavily and that she saw at least one kerosene lantern being used.
Misher said she gave English lessons on Sundays to a 6-year-old boy named Michael Taing who attended the nearby Finleter School.
Misher and John Sanders, 44, another neighbor, said that the other surviving children in the house were named Justin and Jasmine. Misher said a Red Cross worker had told her that an infant also survived.
When Sorn arrived to assist with translating, she recognized an older man standing outside — a family member who lives in the neighborhood. He was distraught and seemingly in shock, she said, afraid the fire might have killed children who were home from school because of the snow.
The neighborhood's closest fire station, Engine 61, was closed for a scheduled brownout Tuesday, leading some neighbors to argue that the tragedy could have been prevented.
"If there hadn't been a brownout, this wouldn't have happened," Misher said. "They wouldn't have perished."
"Maybe they could have got here faster" if Engine 61 had not been closed, Sanders said.
Fire officials were still trying to work out how the adults and the children were related to one another, Ayers said.
Sorn and other association staff also said they were trying to gather more information, and to begin to organize fund-raising to pay for funeral expenses and help the survivors.
Sorn said the family came to the United States during the waves of Southeast Asian resettlement that took place during the mid-1980s and afterward. Many came with nothing, beyond harrowing tales of having escaped war and the genocide known as the Killing Fields.
Thousands had fled to Thailand to escape the Khmer Rouge, who killed an estimated 1.7 million people through execution, torture, starvation, and forced labor after taking over Cambodia in 1975. In the 1980s, Cambodians were resettled in a number of countries, with more than 100,000 coming to the United States.
There are about 6,570 Cambodians in Philadelphia.
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